Blackout
by Winged Ether
Summary: For TwilitWolfLink's Pairings Contest. A cold leaves Pichu stuck in the Mansion while the other Smashers go on a trip, but an unexpected friend stays behind to ease her sadness.


**Well, here we go. This is Winged, and this is mine and Ether's entry for TwilitWolfLink's Pairings Contest. Note that this is our first attempt at romance, or anything remotely serious for that matter, so we're not exactly expecting to do well. So if this turns out cliché or anything like that, oh well.**

_We still think it's pretty good for something we wrote, though, so just, enjoy! Also, try to leave us a review, it really helps should we ever decide to try this again in the future. Thanks!_

**Blackout**

Sometimes, life just plain sucked. Or at least, that's what Pichu thought as she watched the bus containing all the Smashers leave for a camping trip that day. Everyone was going, Master Hand had decided that it would be good bonding time for them and Crazy Hand, well, she just wanted to play with the forest animals.

So why was Pichu staying behind if even Bowser and Ganondorf had to go? Simple, she had caught a cold the day of the trip. Dr. Mario had given her medicine, but medicine didn't help much if you got sick literally two hours before everyone had to leave. And so Pichu lay in her bed with a sore throat, constant shivers, and unintentional releases of electricity every time she sneezed.

The small Electric mouse was interrupted from her thoughts by another sneezing fit. Lightning bolts flew out of her body and struck random objects around her room, causing the already demolished room to look even more like a smoldering wreck. You'd think Master Hand would have at least taken the precautions to make these things shock-proof; if Team Rocket could do it, why couldn't he?

Pichu shuddered as she wrapped her blankets even tighter around her. These past two hours had been the worse two hours of her life. She honestly felt like she'd rather be fighting Giga Bowser, Mewtwo, and Ganondorf at the same time than going through this. At least she was capable of doing that. The worst part was that everyone was gone and wouldn't return until the following afternoon. Oh sure, the Alloys were around to give her food and water, but they weren't very good company. Pichu was already feeling very lonely knowing that she was the only Smasher in the entire mansion.

An unexpected noise jerked Pichu out of her self-misery: a knock on her door. With a bit of effort on her part, Pichu turned over and looked at the alarm clock. It read 3:00. Master Hand had told her that the Alloys wouldn't come to feed her until 6:00, so who could it be?

"C-come in."Pichu called, her voice raspy and barely audible. She didn't bother asking who it was; not like she could do anything about it. Her command seemed to get through, as the door opened, revealing Young Link standing in its frame.

"Hey Pichu. You doing okay?" He asked.

"Y-young Link?" Pichu asked in disbelief. "What are you doing here?"

Young Link walked over and sat on top of her bed. "I'm here to take care of you. Why else?"

"But what about the camping trip? I thought you wanted to be with your brother and the other kid Smashers." Pichu said.

Young Link smiled warmly. "What, and leave you here to suffer all alone? Trust me, I know the Alloys are no fun, and not even being able to leave your bed certainly doesn't help."

Pichu smiled and nodded, before sneezing abruptly, sending out another lightning bolt that Young Link narrowly dodged, striking the wall and busting a hole through it instead. "Oh great. Hope I don't have to pay for that."

Young Link just now seemed to notice the state of Pichu's room. "Whoa, Pichu what happened? It looks like Giga Bowser tore through here."

Pichu coughed lightly before replying. "That's what happens when you're an electric-type that catches a cold. Dad had stuff like this happen to him before, too."

Young Link nodded. "I guess so. Do you need anything?"

Pichu thought for a moment, and then gave an involuntary shudder. "I'm still cold. Can you find me another blanket?"

"Sure." Young Link left the room, heading for the closet down the hall. Pichu waited in silence, feeling much happier now that she knew she was not alone.

Young Link returned five minutes later. "Sorry for the wait. I couldn't find any blankets in the closet, so I had to go to the other one all the way in the second wing of the mansion."

Pichu just smiled contently as Young Link threw the extra blanket over her. "That's okay. I'm just happy that-" A small coughing fit interrupted her.

Young Link gave her a concerned glance. "Do you need any cough medicine? I'm sure there's some in the infirmary."

Pichu tensed up at the mention of the medicine. "No thanks. I can deal with it." Pichu hated the smell and taste of any type of medicine, which was only amplified by her Pokémon senses. The only way she was going to take it was if she was coughing too much to even breathe.

Young Link considered trying to give it to her anyway, but decided to drop the subject. "Okay, if you say so. Try to get some rest, though. You're never going to get better if you just lie in bed destroying your room. Kirby's probably not going to be happy about the hole in his wall, either."

"Okay, I'll try." Pichu said, turning over and wrapping the second blanket around her. Apparently she was more tired than she thought, because she fell asleep right away.

A few hours later, Pichu woke up and looked at the clock, which read 6:30. She didn't see or smell anything though; shouldn't the Alloys have come with food by now?

"About time you got up. I was worried the food would be ready and have time to get cold by the time you woke up." Young Link said from the other side of her, startling Pichu nearly out of her fur.

"Arceus, Young Link! Don't scare me like that!" Young Link just laughed at her surprise.

"Okay, no need to get your tail in a knot. Anyway, soup's almost ready. Just ten more minutes."

"Weren't the Alloys bringing me dinner?" Pichu asked.

"I was bored, so I managed to convince them to let me make it for you instead. You have no idea how hard it is to convince a robot programmed by Master Hand to go against orders." Young Link said.

"So how did you?" She asked.

"I didn't. I took out the one that was supposed to cook for you and shoved it in the basement." Young Link said, looking quite pleased with himself.

"Are you sure that was a good idea?"

"It's the _basement_, Pichu! No one ever goes down there!" She had to agree with him there.

Pichu looked back at the clock. "It's thirty minutes past six. What's taking so long?"

"Well, uh, when it hit six I went and spent ten minutes actually trying to convince the Alloy to let me make the food myself. They're not like R.O.B. though, you can't reason with them. So I eventually took it out, like I said, and spent another ten minutes dragging it to the basement while avoiding the other Alloys." Young Link answered. The Electric Pokémon thought that made enough sense not question it.

Pichu slowly sat up, trying her best to ignore the blood rushing from her head and the huge headache that occurred as a result from lying down too long. She looked out the lone window, where it was night with a few stars glimmering overhead.

"It… got dark pretty quickly, didn't it?"

"Yeah. I'll go get the soup right now. It's chicken noodle, that's what the Alloy told me when I asked." Young Link left the room quickly.

Pichu sat quietly for the next few minutes, the silence only broken by her occasional sniffling. Her nap had done a little to help with her symptoms, but it didn't get rid of them, as she soon found out. Another minute in and she suddenly let out a violent sneeze, shooting a particularly powerful bolt forward, straight through an electric socket. The next thing she knew, the room was enveloped in complete darkness. "Oops."

Young Link stood by the stove, slowly stirring the soup's contents inside the pot. All of a sudden, the lights flickered rapidly. Then they just went out, turning off every electronic in the kitchen, including the stove, and sending this room into pitch blackness as well.

Needless to say, Young Link was not happy. "Goddesses above…"

Pichu was still in her dark room, silently freaking out. "_Oh Arceus, I think I just caused a blackout! Oh, Master Hand is going to kill me when he comes back and finds out about this!"_ She thought.

"Hey Pichu, you still okay?" A voice asked. The voice quickly revealed itself to be Young Link, holding a lit fire arrow in his hand to somewhat light up the area around him.

Pichu tried answering, but her sore throat chose that moment to make her voice fail her. So she just sent small bursts of electricity crackling from her cheeks, revealing her location. Young Link came over and held the fire arrow closer to a glass of water on her nightstand.

"Here, drink this. I'd like for you to be able to talk to me." He said.

Pichu took the water and drank it, not questioning where it had come from in the first place. She just assumed that he put it there while she slept and she just never noticed it before.

"Th-thanks." Pichu said. Her voice still sounded a little hoarse, but it evened out as she kept talking. "Is the whole mansion out?"

Young Link nodded. "Pitch black the entire walk here. I suppose it's a good thing that the Alloys have their own internal batteries, I think I saw some of them going to fix the generator that you busted."

"Oh." Was all Pichu said. She was silent for a bit before speaking again. "Okay, so I suppose we have some time since nothing's working, might as well talk. What did you do while I slept?"

"Nothing much. I trained, played videogames, that sort of thing. Everyone knows that I stayed behind and you're too sick to do anything, so I couldn't try to set up any pranks. They would instantly be blamed on me."

"Speaking of which, why did you stay? If I recall, you were one of the Smashers most excited about the trip. Why did you give it up just to take care of me?"

"Well, I had something similar to me happen before." Young Link said as he recalled the memory. "A bad fight with Donkey Kong left me stuck in the infirmary on the same day as everyone was going to the beach. All of the Smashers were only gone a few hours, but I was still alone until then, and that wasn't any fun."

"Oh wait, I remember that day." Pichu spoke up. "I felt bad for you, but Dad wouldn't have let me stay, even if I asked."

"You know how Pikachu can be." Young Link said. "The point is that you were going to be by yourself much longer than I was, so I convinced Master Hand to let me stay behind with you."

Pichu smiled brightly at his show of kindness. Wriggling out from under her blankets, she leaned into Young Link, giving him an affectionate hug and just enjoying being this close to him. Young Link gently returned her embrace after a brief moment of surprise.

"I'm glad you stayed here with me, Young Link."

"Sure thing, Pichu."

They stayed that way for a short time until the lights throughout the mansion flickered back on.

Pichu broke away and looked around. "I guess the Alloys fixed the generator."

"I suppose so." They didn't hug again, but remained there for a long time in silence.

The tender moment ended when Pichu suddenly asked, "Hey, did you remember to take the food off the stove when you came here?"

Young Link's eyes widened as he realized he did not. "Oh shoot!" He hopped off the bed and ran out towards the kitchen at a speed Sonic would be proud of.

Pichu just laughed openly as she watched him go. She coughed a few times afterwards, but she didn't care anymore. All of a sudden, her cold seemed a lot more bearable.


End file.
